Taliban video shows handover of U.S. soldier Sgt Bowe Bergdahl who spent five years in captivity

The Taliban have released a video showing the handover of soldier Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl to U.S. forces as part of a deal that will see the release of five Taliban inmates from Guantanamo Bay.

The footage, which was filmed at around 4pm on Saturday and released today, shows Sgt. Bergdahl being given over to U.S. military in a Khost province valley in eastern Afghanistan after five years in captivity.

Sgt. Bergdahl climbs out of a white pick-up truck and is walked out to a Black Hawk helicopter, watched by more than a dozen Taliban fighters armed with machine guns.

Armed Taliban fighters dotted the Khost valley, near Pakistan, where the handover took place (Picture: Reuters)

‘Don’t come back to Afghanistan,’ one of the men can be heard telling Bergdahl in Pashto – one of the country’s two main languages.

‘You won’t make it out alive next time.’

Five senior Taliban figures being held in Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba were flown out to Qatar, which has acted as a mediator in negotiations between the two sides.

The Taliban hailed the exchange as a significant achievement.

Sgt. Bergdahl is led to the helicopter by Taliban fighters (Picture: Reuters)

In a statement distributed to media along with the footage, the organisation announced the swap with ‘great happiness and joy’ and said they are seeking the release of additional prisoners.

Sgt. Bergdahl, from Hailey, Idaho, is recovering in military hospital in Germany.

‘Don’t come back – you will not alive next time’ a Taliban soldier tells Sgt. Bergdahl (Picture: Reuters)

However, the Army is considering pursuing an investigation into the 28-year-old’s capture.

The Pentagon concluded in 2010 that Sgt. Bergdahl had abandoned his unit before he was taken.

The unit said attempts to find him had cost the lives of soldiers.

The Taliban figures involved in the exchange will have to stay in Qatar for one year and are allowed to be monitored by the U.S., conditions that the Afghan Foreign Ministry has condemned as ‘against the norms of international law.’